Full point Olympic dreams

CEBU, Philippines - Zero in Sydney, zero in Athens, zero (except for a gold in Wushu a demonstration sport so it doesn’t count) in Beijing and now zero again in London.

That spells our woes in the Olympics and in Rio de Janeiro this 2016, we hope to hit pay dirt.

For sure, man grand standing politicians would be going through our country’s sports program using a fine toothed comb, but these people should realize that it is their kind that is hampering our country’s improvement.

I hope that we would start preparing for the 2016 Olympics right away and look beyond that in order to end the medal drought and hopefully win our dream gold medal.

Nothing is impossible as we see many small nations win gold medals, yet their population is so much less than ours. That means we got a bigger pool to look for talents, but we can only succeed is we don’t change our sports programs each time a new political leader takes over.

This doesn’t only go for the president, who we elect every six years, but also and more importantly also for the local government officials, who are elected every three years.

* * *

Several days ago, Irene Sarausad Watanabe posted on her Facebook page the results of the All-Japan Inter High School Judo Championships.

While the table was in Japanese characters, it wasn’t that difficult to follow the result of player number 29 in the table, Kiyomi Watanabe, who played for the Philippines in last year’s Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia winning a bronze medal at the age of 15 years old.

Kiyomi was born in Cebu, but moved to Japan with her family when she was in her grade school years.

Irene, who hails from Toledo City and was once a student of my mother, said that it has been Kiyomi’s dream to make it into the top eight of this tournament.

She ranked fifth overall in the 70 kilograms category and I am sure that she will continue to climb up the rankings in the future seeing how dedicated she is to the sport, which is the first Asian martial art to become an official Olympic event.

Some day, Kiyomi will be an Olympian and I hope that she would carry the tri colors of the Philippines and win us a medal.

Like judoka Tomohiko Hoshina, she could opt to play for either Japan or the Philippines, but I hope she would choose her mother’s country when the time comes.

Keep up the good work Kiyomi and I look forward to your next visit to Cebu and the clinic that you are going to conduct here.

There is also a plan to organize a judo club at Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, which we are now working on along with Philippine Judo Federation VP Atty. Vic Fernandez and the school’s athletic director Rico Navarro.

* * *

MILESTONES: A warm welcome to Cebu to the students from the Eiko Gakuen High School of Japan, who arrived last Thursday for a two-week exchange program in Cebu. My family plays host to one of the boys, Hiroyuki Igarashi, whose family was also the host of my son when the boys from Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu went to Japan last May.

Belated happy birthday greetings go to my compadre Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, who has done much for sports in Cebu. He turned a year older yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to Super Bobby Nalzaro, my comare Suizette Nemeño-Young, Hara See, Harry Guinocor, Atty. Marla Barcenilla, and to my mistah Gerry Pariñas.

Advance gree0tings to those celebrating tomorrow like Manfred Schuwerk, Augustus Cesar Carangue, and Marvy Morales, the better half of my good friend Edwin of Pagcor.

More power to all of you!